What happens when ninjas meet fruit? All that's left is one lone ninja surrounded by bunches of sliced fruit. That is the key theme in Fruit Ninja.

Gameplay

Fruit Ninja currently offers two game modes, and one more is coming according to the developer. In classic mode, different variety of fruit are tossed at you and you must slice them before they disappear. If you miss and the fruit leaves the screen then you lose a life. You have only 3 lives, after you loose them it?s game over. The other game mode is Zen mode where your ninja becomes enlightened and doesn't lose any life. Isn?t that nice? In Zen mode you must try to cut as much fruit as possible in the time limit and the best thing is that you lose No life! So ignore the ones you are going to miss and concentrate on the ones you can slice.

Now playing the game is easy: put a finger on the screen and swipe it across the screen to cut the flying fruit pieces. For each fruit you cut you get 1 point in the score, if you manage to slice 3 or more fruits in a row then you get a combo and bonus points. One thing that makes it interesting, and frustrating at times, is that not only innocent fruits flying around for you to cut, but also BOMBS will fly as well. Now instinctively you want to avoid cutting these bombs, should you slice one by accident it?s game over. You didn?t think you?d survive when you cut a live bomb in half, did you? Luckily this only happens in Classic mode. Scores are stored both locally and submitted globally via OpenFeint.

Graphics

Cutting fruit is epic, but cutting fruit in 3-D is much better. Fruit Ninja has amazing 3-D graphics allowing you to see the fruit in stunning detail. Everything is sharp and look polished in this game: the bombs, the fruit, even the apple in OpenFeint?s logo. When you slice the fruit open you see the inside of the fruit in detail, like if you sliced the watermelon open you would see all the seeds. The controls are simple and easy without any glitch.

Sound

The title of this game is Fruit NINJA, so the developers decided to stick with a ninja theme from the title screen to the endgame. Sound FX is simple but expressive and not all fruit makes the same sound when they?re sliced: when you slice a coconut it makes a ?thwack? sounds, but all the other fruit will make plash sound. Then there's the bomb. When you slice the bomb it will make a "PLINK!" sound and you will hear a "BOOOOM!"

Conclusion

If you?ve been force fed fruit since birth and you don?t like them, you might find Fruit Ninja an enjoyable game thanks to its non-stop slicing and dicing. The game is easy to pick up and play, and somehow the simple gameplay manages to amuse for quite a long time.

Fruit Ninja v1.3 release is out. Here is info straight from the developer on the Dojo addition:

"Welcome to Fruit Ninja version 1.3, where we are proud to release the Dojo - a new menu to help you manage your Fruit Ninja career! We will be adding more features to the Dojo in every update, and are kicking off the launch with some much-requested customization options.

The Dojo addition for version 1.3 is Sensei's Swag - an area where you can unlock and apply some amazing changes to the game. By completing various objectives within both Classic and Zen Mode, you can unlock new backgrounds and swipes and begin using them instantly!

This update includes three new backgrounds and three new swipes - simply open the Sensei's Swag menu to see which you have unlocked and the objectives required for each one.

And finally, one of the most requested fruit from the community has now been added! It may not be particularly sweet but it sure is juicy - please welcome LEMONS to the cast of colorful characters! Best of all, they come with a whole range of new and exciting Fruit Facts.

We will be continuing to add more content to the game modes, the Dojo and Sensei?s Swag in the near future!"